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Revolutionary Spaces

**Revolutionary Spaces ** connects people to the history and continuing practice of democracy through the intertwined stories of two of the nation’s most iconic sites—Boston’s Old South Meeting House and Old State House. We foster a free and open exchange of ideas, explore history, create gathering places, and preserve and steward historic buildings.

https://www.bostonhistory.org

Our Daily Bread: Tales of How Treasures Were Saved

Thu, Nov 13, 2003

"Cherished Possessions" exhibition manager Ken Turino recounts several fascinating stories, including that of a Dorchester family who saved two pieces of bread allegedly dating to the 17th century and a bedcover made by the mother and grandmother of Samuel Adams and passed down through generations of women. Turino shares the stories of how the 200 objects in the "Cherished Possessions" exhibition were saved and managed to survive to the present day, which are often as interesting as the objects themselves.

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Bits to Beeswax: The Conservation of Treasures

Thu, Nov 20, 2003

Michaela Neiro assistant conservator for the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities (SPNEA), explains how the creative use of materials, such as clay and beeswax, as well as computer technology, help conservators save cherished objects. SPNEA has the largest assemblage of New England art and artifacts in its collection, a total of nearly 100,000 items. The care and conservation of these objects is an astonishingly meticulous and important job.

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230 Years Later: The Boston Tea Party Revisited

Thu, Dec 11, 2003

Local historian, author and tour guide Charlie Bahne takes us back to 1773 when the talk of the town was tea. Learn about the actual value of tea not only in monetary ways, but the importance tea played in everyday civilians lives. On the 230th anniversary of the famous event, Mr. Bahne explore these topics and more in the building that served as the dramatic backdrop of the infamous Boston Tea Party meeting.

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Atlantic Pirates in the Golden Age

Fri, Jun 25, 2004

Marcus Rediker discusses his book, Villains of All Nations: Atlantic Pirates in the Golden Age, an unprecedented social and cultural history of pirates and their democratic, egalitarian and multiethnic society. Villains of All Nations explores the "Golden Age" of Atlantic piracy (1716-1726). This infamous generation provided the images that underlie the modern romanticized view of pirates, such as the dreaded black flag The Jolly Roger; swashbuckling figures like Edward Teach (aka Blackbeard); and the nameless, one-armed pirate who became known as Long John Silver in Stevenson's Treasure Island. Rediker exposes pirate history and shows how sailors emerged out of deadly working conditions on merchant and naval ships, turned pirate, and created a starkly different reality aboard their own ships, electing their officers, dividing their booty equitably, and maintaining a multinational social order. The real lives of the real motley crews, which included cross-dressing women, people of color, and the "outcasts of all nations," are at least as compelling as the contemporary myth.

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Town Meeting with Howard Zinn

Thu, Mar 25, 2004

Howard Zinn discusses his classic book *A People's History of the United States*. James R. Green, Professor of History at UMass, Boston, moderates. This event is presented in collaboration with the Organization of American Historians as a Partners in Public Dialogue Program.

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Literary Trail of Greater Boston

Thu, Jun 23, 2005

Professional photographer and writer Susan Wilson brings Boston's Freedom Trail to life with highlights from the newly revised edition of her beloved guidebook. No city in America can match the literary heritage of Boston. Just as the city has a Freedom Trail connecting its Revolutionary sites, it also has a literary trail connecting the homes, workplaces, and final resting places of its great writers.

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A Short History of Boston

Thu, May 5, 2005

Robert J. Allison, professor of history at Suffolk University, brings to life the major events and important figures who formed the "City on a Hill".

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Last Mantua Maker: Women in Boston's Clothing Trades

Thu, Mar 24, 2005

In 1845, after almost a dozen years in business, Rebecca Goodwin Major closed up shop. She was the very last Boston woman to call herself a mantuamaker in the pages of the city directory. Most of her competitors abandoned the 17th-century term for the more up-to-date nomenclature, dressmaker. Marla Miller, assistant professor of public history at UMASS Amherst, will look at how one of the most prestigious occupations available to American women since the 17th century, faded from the Boston scene.

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Ponzi's Scheme: True Story of a Financial Legend

Thu, Nov 3, 2005

Mitchell Zuckoff discusses Charles Ponzi's mercurial rise and fall as he conjured up one get-rich-quick scheme after another. Zuckoff reveals how The Boston Post uncovered this "robbing Peter to pay Paul" system (as it was then known), and how Ponzi's life unraveled. Before Charles Ponzi (1882-1949) sailed from Italy to the shores of America in 1903, his father assured him that the streets were really paved with gold and that Ponzi would be able to get a piece. Ponzi learned as soon as he disembarked that though the streets were often cobblestone, he could still make a fortune in a culture caught in the throes of the Gilded Age.

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Caroline Healey Dall: Daughter of Boston

Thu, Oct 20, 2005

Helen R. Deese discusses the 45 volume diary of Bostonian transcendentalist Caroline Healey Dall, which is perhaps the longest diary written by any American and the most complete account of a nineteenth century woman's life in existence. Bostonian Caroline Healey Dall (1822-1912) was a transcendentalist, early feminist, writer, reformer, and an extremely active diarist. Caroline Healey Dall kept a diary for 75 years that captured the fascinating details of her sometimes agonizing personal life, the major figures who surrounded her, and many facets of nineteenth century Boston.

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